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One thing

There is a chick who followed Jesus who always takes my breath away: Mary of Bethany. I love watching her because of her devotion to Jesus & her authenticity. The first time we read of her, she’s sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to Him – a place reserved for men who were learning from a teacher, not women who weren’t deemed as worthy to receive education nor instruction. Mary should’ve been helping Martha in the kitchen, doing domestic stuff. But Jesus applauds Mary & says that “this one thing won’t be taken from her.”
Mary’s devotion to Jesus is tested when her brother Lazarus dies, even though Jesus could have prevented his death. Mary is extremely upset by Lazarus’ death & it seems to me that she let her emotions prevent her from seeing her brother raised from the dead (John 11).
The final time we read much about Mary is when she is washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, drying them with her hair & anointing Jesus with costly oil. Her love & devotion to Jesus were nothing less than authentic & extravagant. May I love Jesus as Mary did

We probably have fairly similar lives with lots of demands & responsibilities – maybe yours are different than mine, but we usually have lots of things to juggle (kids’ schedules, saving Moses, workload concerns, personal goals, family dynamics, church things, . . . .). You probably have a similar list & I’ve often had people ask me for ideas on how to balance everything. If I’m honest, there are times when I don’t balance everything well & some things get short changed, which I hate.

But lately, I’ve found it really helpful to nestle into “one thing” – the essential & continuous priority that permeates everything (sleeping, eating, cooking, errands, conversations, work, blogging, thinking, planning, . . . . . ). My “one thing” is to know Jesus and I want everything that I do to be infused with this “one thing” – Luke 10:42. “One thing” doesn’t mean that I drop everything, but it means that as I go throughout each day with its diverse demands and responsibilities, my “one thing” continues and remains 🙂